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14 CENTRAL CANTERBURY NEWS, AUGUST 28, 2013
Cnr East Street and Walnut Avenue, Ashburton.
Phone 307-5830 anytime. www.ashburton.toyota.co.nz
Ray Girvan - 0274 507 497, Gavin Johnston - 0274 507 544 OPEN SAT
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Snow peas satisfy craving
This column is adapted
from the e-newsletter Get
Growing from New Zealand
Gardener. To subscribe to
Get Growing visit the NZ
Gardener website at
nzgardener.
co.nz, and click on the Get
Growing tab. To subscribe
to NZ Gardener visit
mags4gifts.co.nz or call
0800 mags 4 gifts.
By LYNDA HALLINAN
SOW NOW: Snow peas will be ready to pick in as little as eight weeks.
Photo: FAIRFAX
SOW SNOW PEAS
If you're craving crisp, crunchy
spring salads and stir-fries
instead of more stodgy mashed
spuds or roasted parsnips and
swedes, sow peas.
Even better, sow snow peas --
these are the peas you eat, pod
and all.
Sown now, snow peas will be
ready to pick in as little as eight
weeks, compared to 10-12 weeks
for proper peas in the pod.
And, while you're waiting for
the pods to form, you can also nip
off their tendrils and tender tips
to add to salads -- they're full of
pea flavour. The flowers are also
edible, but don't pick too many or
you'll sacrifice the pods.
My favourite snow pea variety
at the moment is Carouby' from
Kings Seeds. This is a vigorous
climbing snow pea with gorgeous
purple flowers and sweet, juicy
pods. It's also said to show good
heat-tolerance and resistance to
mildew. Sow it now.
PREPARE YOUR SOIL
FOR SPRING PLANTING
Healthy soil equals healthy
produce -- and it's far easier to
fix soil issues at the start of the
season, when you still have easy
access to empty beds.
The best type of soil for grow-
ing veges is a crumbly loam: this
is friable, fertile and free-
draining.
Sandy soil drains too quickly to
retain enough moisture in sum-
mer; it leaches nutrients and
needs more organic matter to
help plants get a foothold.
Improve its structure by digging
in plenty of compost.
Clay soil can be a horror to
work but it's not all bad. Though
rock hard in summer and a
gluggy mess in winter, it does
retain nutrients. Compost also
does a world of good for clay
soils. If you can't make enough of
your own, choose a brand that
includes gypsum too. Daltons,
for example, is a blend of compo-
sted bark fines, untreated aged
sawdust, mushroom compost,
chicken manure and gypsum for
extra calcium and better drain-
age.
How much to use? If you're
using bags of compost, a good
rule of thumb is one 40L bag per
square metre. Fork it in lightly;
don't dig down more than a
spade depth or you'll upset the
soil's natural balance. Don't dig
in too much compost either, or
you'll get hot pockets that cause
other problems, like forked car-
rots. Too much compost can also
compact down and cause a lack
of aeration.
Compost isn't fertiliser. If
you're gardening year-round, it's
important to dig nutrients back
into your soil. There's a huge
range of specialist fertilisers for
almost every type of plant --
roses, citrus, leafy crops, camel-
lias, orchids etc -- but as a gen-
eral rule you only need two types
of fertiliser: a nitrogen-based
blend to kickstart growth in
spring, and a flowering/fruiting
formulation for later in the
season, when you want plants
like tomatoes to concentrate on
fruit production, not more foli-
age. And on that note, tomato
fertiliser can be used on all fruit-
ing plants... from strawberries to
beans. (The exception to the rule
is potted plants; it's best to buy a
specialist container food for
them, as potting mix leaches
nutrients more quickly than
standard garden soil.)
Do you need to add lime? Not
necessarily. Old gardening
manuals might tell you to add
lime every season, but unless
you live in a region with very
heavy rainfall, or all the hydran-
geas in your garden are bright
blue (a sure sign of acidic soil),
measure the pH of your soil to
check it first. Dolomite lime is
useful to sweeten' acidic soils,
but don't overdo it. Most crops
are quite happy in slightly acid
(pH 6.0 to 7.0) soils and some,
such as spuds, prefer it. Never
lime soil you're about to plant
potatoes in; in fact, it's best to do
this job in autumn.
How do you know you've got
healthy soil? The worms will tell
you. If your soil is stony, sandy
or low in organic matter, you
won't see many worms. But if it's
teeming with worms, you're on
the right track.
GET YOUR GARLIC IN
If you still haven't planted your
seed cloves, do it this weekend, as
garlic needs a period of winter
chill to form bulbs (otherwise all
you get is a nice clump of leaves
on stalks like spring onions).
PLANT STRAWBERRIES
If you'd like an endless supply
of strawberries for summer you'll
need to get them in now. Early
strawberry varieties are already
flowering, which means you
should expect your first crop in
6-8 weeks. Strawberry plants,
both potted and bareroot, are
widely available in garden cen-
tres. Plant in full sun in free-
draining soil. Dig strawberry food
into the soil when planting (you
can side dress existing plants now
too). Strawberry plants crop well
for 2-3 years before losing vigour,
so it's a good idea to replace a
third of your plants each year.